The Zipline Tour

:: What to expect

Orientation.It all begins at Sky Tours check-in where you’ll meet up with your guides for introductions and equipment orientation. You’ll then suit up in gear that meets the highest standards of safety while your highly trained and certified guides tell you what to expect and how to safely navigate the course. Then, after a short hike to the first zipline take-off point, you'll clip in and fly away!

Zip 2: Rabbit Run. After another land take-off, you’ll soar over this beautiful and secluded valley before landing on the opposing hillside.

A short nature walk through the forested grounds takes you to the next challenge: Lookout Tower. Lookout Tower literally towers over the valley floor. At 45-feet, it serves as both landing platform (for Skyline) and take-off point (for Hawk's Nest). It also offers a 360° view of Union Park’s Horseshoe Hollow.

Zip 3: Skyline.A takeoff from a hillside platform launches you toward Lookout Tower. At the end of your 400-foot land-to-tower flight, you arrive atop Lookout Tower with a magnificent panoramic view of Horseshoe Hollow (the valley below), the Union Park amphitheater ruins, bluffs, hillsides, and a bubbling creek that meanders through the valley. But even after a safe landing, there’s no disembarking … because at 45 feet above ground level, there’s nowhere to go! It’s time for your next departure:

Zip 4: Hawk’s Nest. Platform to land, you’ll literally step off into thin air as you return to solid ground atop a bluff area.

After a safe landing, be on the lookout for Cooper’s Hawks; there’s a nest overhead, about 25 feet above your landing point. Here’s what to watch for:

Zip 5: Air Strike. Air Strike may be the most tightly designed zipline, threading its line through lush and dense vegetation. This line zips over the basin that housed the former bowling alley of Union Park, inspiring its name: “Air Strike.”

Zip 6: Ground Speed.The zipline nearest to ground level, it seems to hug the surrounding terrain, paralleling its drop in elevation as you zip from a hillside launch through the trees, then along the valley floor at speeds — well — they're fast! Then, finally landing on the far end of this eastern valley after another smooth ride!

Another short hike along a long-abandoned, paved promenade, this time gaining some serious elevation. A hillside staircase. Terraced areas that once surrounded a thriving bandstand. Deer trails. And maybe a great-horned owl amid the trees' higher branches. Here’s what to watch for:

At the end of this climbing trek, you’ll be ready for your next adventure: The Duel.

Zip 7: The Duel.Fast! Fierce! Fantastically fun! This double zipline is more than 800 feet in length ... almost three football fields placed end to end! These side-by-side zips scream down the hillside, then skim the valley floor — gliding over the ruins of the massive Union Park pool — before touching down on the valley’s opposing hillside.

Zip 8: Cross Country. Crossing over Union Park's main valley, this wild ride is the Midwest's first double-layered zipline experience. After a hillside launch, you'll pass directly over The Duel, our signature side-by-side zipline, before landing on the opposite hillside of Horshoe Hollow.

Zip 9: Over the Top. The Big One! High, fast, and visual, an elevated take-off deck launches you through a tree corridor before exploding over Horseshoe Hollow and zipping 75 feet above gorgeous terrain and the former glory of Union Park.